The continues increase of the use of optical fibers in the area of tele- and data communication has created a demand for more efficient production of many products related to communications by fiber. One important such a product is various kinds of assemblies including fiber lengths. Typical assembly products are, optical amplifiers and optical couplers but also laser modules, receiver modules and integrated transmitter modules. The number of these and other opto- and optoelectronic assemblies that comprise one or more fiber lengths is increasing but still there is not known any solution for large scale production.
A common way of manufacturing fiber optic assemblies is to bring the fiber lengths by hand to the different preparation tools needed for providing appropriate connections to components or with another fiber length. Another approach is to bring at least most of the tools one by one to the operator. Examples of such tools are: cutters for cutting the fiber, strippers for removing parts of the cladding, splicers for connecting two fiber ends and recoaters for recoating of a spliced fiber.
An optical communication fiber normally consists of a glass fiber core of about 125 microns and a coated cladding thereon giving a total fiber diameter of about 250 microns. The cladding or coating is made of two layers of acrylate one inner and softer layer and one outer and harder layer. The coating is necessary for protecting the fiber core and for providing tensile and bending strength to the fiber. The optical fibers are still quite delicate products and the same applies to many opto- and optoelectronic components. A problem with today's mainly manual handling of fiber lengths and components is that they often get damages and have to be sorted out. Another problem is that the production is limited as to capacity and the quality is very much dependant on the operator's skill.